Kindergarten

David was VERY excited to be going to Kindergarten this morning! He woke and got dressed right away. He was so excited he couldn't even eat the donut he had picked out for himself at Wegmans yesterday. He said he just wanted to get to the bus stop!

This morning was all about fun and excitement! They were both nuts! They wanted to scream and dance for pictures. Ryan was just as excited as David.

After we were done taking picture, I told David we could walk to the bus stop. He took off down the sidewalk - running! Ryan tried to keep up!

We got to the bus stop about 10 minutes early. More dancing and screaming for excitement. Then the bus pulled around the corner. David jumped on the bus so fast! The windows were all tinted, so Paul and I just waved to the dark windows and hoped David could see us. No tears for anyone this morning, just excitement!

 David's Kindergarten had an orientation morning on the day before he rides the bus to school.  It was for both of us to get to check out the classroom, the teachers and meet his classmates.  We completed a scavenger hunt, colored a mural and got information on the school's policies.

 After the orientation we met Paul for lunch at the Waffle Shop to tell him about everything we learned that morning.

The Reading Phillies

We went to see the Reading Phillies play at the Altoona Curve on Friday night with Grammy Jill and Uncle Peter.  They have an awesome stadium with lots of actives for kids and families.  They have a swimming pool you can watch the game from!  It was very cool.   

 The boys had fun dancing to the music and trying to catch balls.

Lake Tobias

On Satuday we took the kids to Lake Tobias. We boarded the safari tour as soon as we got there. They got to feed lots of wild animals - bison, fallow deer, emu, alpaca and elk. . . .and lots more I can't remember.

The elk came right into the bus and the kids fed her some popcorn and ears of corn.

The girls loved the guinea pigs in the petting zoo section. They wanted to take one home. Then they told me "mommy said we can have one when we're 9." Hmmmm, I bet Mommy thought they would forget that one! They were pretty cute, but also pretty smelly.

They really enjoyed the reptile show. David's favorite animal was the alligator. Ryan loved the goats and the girls loved the guinea pigs.

I was happy to see how much they loved the reptiles. We're planning a reptile birthday party for both boys in the fall.

After dinner Paul set up the tent in the family room. He set it up so they could lay in their sleeping bags inside the tent and watch a movie on the tv. We thought that would work out perfectly. They had other ideas. The jumped around, wrestled and giggled for over an hour. At 10 p.m. David came out and asked if he could go upstairs and go to bed. Kelsey followed him upstairs and then we just moved all the kids to the bedrooms and they fell right to sleep, which worked out better. They were all able to sleep in Sunday morning.

4 Happy Kids

Very busy day with four happy kids! More pictures and details to come. They're all in a tent in the living room right now watching a movie. This needs to become an annual event.

Pool Day with Cousins

We've been keeping Kelsey and Kaitlyn very busy while Shelby and Bob are away. Today we took the girls to the pool. We had the pool all to ourselves for the first 2 hours.

We ate lunch and snacks in between diving for rings and jumping off the diving boards.

Kaitlyn loves the diving boards. She was the first one over as soon as they opened them up and stayed the longest.

Kelsey took Ryan for a piggyback ride around the shallow section. He loved it!

After the pool we came home and played baseball with our neighbors and then watched some fireworks in the backyard. Our neighbor, Michael, said it was just like at the Spikes game to have the fireworks after the baseball game. So he invited all the kids to his house to run the bases after the fireworks, just like at the Spikes game.

We ended our night with smores. By 9:00 David was asking if he could go inside and go to bed! The cousins are wearing each other out! So much fun is exhausting!

Baseball & Monkey Rodeo (Yes, I said "Monkey Rodeo")

Thursday night was "Bark in the Park" night at the Spikes stadium. We went to the game with Nana Sharon, Pappy Dave, Aunt Susan and Uncle Gary and Kelsey and Kaitlyn. The kids enjoyed their free baseball meals of hot dogs, chips and soda.

After sitting through the first inning, the kids were ready to head over to the Kids Club area to bounce, run and climb. We spent the remaining 7 innings in this section. They didn't stop moving!

We headed back to our seats to watch the 8th inning through the 10th inning. We got to see Spikes win in extra innings!

The Monkey Rodeo man brought out his Monkey Cowboys, riding some sort of herding dog. This man had a deep spiritiual love for these monkeys. He shared his story with us of falling in love with monkeys at a very young age and dreaming of having his very own monkey. He now has 6 and has a very special connection to these monkeys, as well as the monkeys to the dogs. (I felt like I was sitting in the audience of Saturday Night Live. )

These were the rams the monkeys and dogs herded. Quite amazing. Definitely something I'll most likely never see again. Ryan's concern on the way home "Mommy, why were those monkeys wearing clothes?"